Xavier Villegas’s Reviews > The Reluctant Fundamentalist > Status Update

Over the course of this section of the book intercourse is depicted twice over merely a few pages. The initially brought me disliking towards the author and disgust to this would be necessary to add. However i soon came to the realization that it might a strong affection of intimacy and love that abruptly would become weak and vanish. The storm before the calm, this might foreshadow to the success of Changez to come.

Over these 20 pages i often found myself uncomfortable and surprised to the themes the author was mentioning. Especially when inticamcy throgh intercourse it depicted very vividly i had to skip the page as i did not see the need to read such things. Also the mention of how real muslims were affected from harassed to tortured/attacked and even murdered just for being muslims which i found very interesting.

I felt a sense of great uncomfort during this part of the book which i found uncanny. The mention of 911 being uncomfortable became even more as the author creates a tension and puts the reader on the edge of his seat. Racial profiling is very apparent during this part of the book and i believe spread awareness to american civilians that innocent people of the east had suffered under prejudice of being terrorists.

Over the course of this first third of the book i have noticed and been intrigued by how the author so skillfully can arouse thoughts in the reader's mind. The author made me feel excitement and on the edge of my seat when Changez has success however also uncomfortable and awkward when Erica mentioned his dead counterpart. This doesn't usually happen to me during books which has led me to deeply enjoy reading it.

These few pages I experienced confused feelings and often had to re-read passages as the author constantly changes the setting arousing confusion. I also really "enjoyed" how deep and descriptive every situation is making the reader also feel awkwardness, uncomfort and disgust as if being in that very place. These few pages also gave me a perspective to things unclear to me before helping my overall social awareness.

Over these first few pages of the book i have found very intriguing how the author has managed to have only one character speak while the other one which is part of a conversation we have to depict his sentences by the reaction of the main character. This book also made me feel knowledgeable of Islam as it subtly mentions practices and customs of it. I also felt a sense of understanding to pakistanis' environment.